1. Locate web 2. Spray web with a fine spray from approx. 30 cm using supplied spray bottle 3. Identify whether the web is a a. Complete orb web, or

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3 1. Locate web 2. Spray web with a fine spray from approx. 30 cm using supplied spray bottle 3. Identify whether the web is a a. Complete orb web, or b. Orb web with missing sections, or c. Other web (not an orb web) 4. Choose the appropriate dichotomous key to identify web type e.g. W8 5. Choose appropriate identification table to identify spider 6. Record web type using the Tally Sheet

WEB TYPE & SIZE W21 OTHER WEBS: LACE, SHEET & TANGLE

"Funnel-like" entrance leads to a retreat.

spider Badumna longinqua and B. insignis W22 5-15cms.

16 WEB TYPE & SIZE W21 OTHER WEBS: LACE, SHEET & TANGLE DESCRIPTORS 10-30cms. Lacy web found on tree trunks or bark. "Funnel-like" entrance leads to a retreat. Old silk is matted and coarse, and lace degenerates in to an irregular pattern. Examples of SPIDERS from SYDNEY REGION Black house or Window spider Badumna longinqua and B. insignis W cms. Web radiates from hole in dead twig. Found among twigs, leaves and flower heads. Lacy radial spokes. Common name: N/A Desidae: Paramatachia spp.

Lacy surfaces stretch out in one or more planes.

leaves or debris woven tightly with silk.

Leaf or detritus retreat suspended in lines

17 W cms. Found among twigs, leaves and flower heads. Lacy surfaces stretch out in one or more planes. Silk retreat may be visible Black house spider Desidae: Badumna spp. W cms. Found among twigs, leaves and flower heads. Surrounds a large or small nest made from leaves or debris woven tightly with silk. Common name: N/A Desidae: Phryganoporus candidus. W cms. Sheet pulled up in one or more peaks. Leaf or detritus retreat suspended in lines above sheet. Irregularly woven sheet, very light and filmy. Comb-footed platform spider Achaearanea mundula

W26 5-25cms Sheet pulled up in one or more peaks

) Several spiders may make webs close together with many

No distinct peaks in sheet (may be small peaks where

18 W cms Sheet pulled up in one or more peaks Leaf/detritus retreat suspended in lines above sheet. Tent web spider Cyrtophora sp. Regular radial weave (may be finely meshed, look closely!) Several spiders may make webs close together with many connecting lines. W cms. No distinct peaks in sheet (may be small peaks where knockdown lines attach). Money spiders Linyphiidae No retreat Small sheets or hammocks in low vegetation. Knockdown tangle above or below sheet.

W28 10-100cms W29 10-40cms. W29a 5-15cms.

Sheet slopes down into a retreat burrow.

grass tussock. Filmy sloping sheet slope down from retreat.

Retreat burrow often in rotting wood or under bark, sometimes in an earthen

Densely woven sheet with broad funnel to substrate.

19 W cms W cms. W29a 5-15cms. Platform web with fine knockdown tangle above sheet. Sheet slopes down into a retreat burrow. Retreat is usually a burrow in the ground, but maybe into a wood crevice or grass tussock. Filmy sloping sheet slope down from retreat. Retreat opens to underside of sheet and spider runs upside down on sheet. Retreat burrow often in rotting wood or under bark, sometimes in an earthen embankment. Web roughly triangular or trapezoid. Densely woven sheet with broad funnel to substrate. Found on rock faces or underside of logs. Retreat in centre of sheet. Funnel often closed by sheet. Platform spider Corasoides australis Sombrero/Cave spider Stiphidiidae spp. Cupboard spider Theridiidae: Steatoda spp. Crinoline or Sombrero Spider Stiphidion facetum

W30 5-10cms. W31 15-100cms. Tangle webs with silk retreat; retreat may be tight silk or untidy mess, usually densely woven. Web between leaves, twigs or branches.

Retreat in dense tangle, thimble shaped, usually under shelter. Sticky droplets near end of long lines only.

20 W cms. W cms. Tangle webs with silk retreat; retreat may be tight silk or untidy mess, usually densely woven. Web between leaves, twigs or branches. Long lines of Theridiid web often have evenly spaced sticky droplets. Spider is usually in or near retreat, upside down. Tangle webs with long lines which always go down to firm surface (e.g. ground/log). Retreat in dense tangle, thimble shaped, usually under shelter. Sticky droplets near end of long lines only. The long lines are the catching points crawling animals get stuck to the sticky droplets, the elasticity of the long lines takes prey upwards when it breaks. The retreat may be of thickly tangled silk and often contains egg sacs, as well as spider, which hangs upside down. Comb-footed spiders Achaearanea spp. Theridion spp. Redback spider Latrodectrus hasselti or Comb-footed spider Achaearanea spp. or Cupboard spider Steatoda spp.

W32 5-10cms. Tangle web without a silk retreat.

tangle. Sticky droplets on lines present or absent.

21 W cms. Tangle web without a silk retreat. Spindle or asterisk-shaped egg sac may be suspended in the tangle. Sticky droplets on lines present or absent. Theridiids will usually be present in a catching web Cobweb or Neon spider Theridion sp.

22 GLOSSARY A barrier web, also known as a labyrinth, is a haphazard series of silk lines in front of and/or behind an orb web. These are thought to help deter and detect predators. The lines may also help to disorient flying prey, making them more likely to fly into the orb, which is the catching part of the web. Catching surface: the area of an orb web that is covered by spirals or switchbacks of sticky, stretchy silk. In missing sector webs, the missing sector is defined by not having this catching surface, although a tangle of lines may fill the gap. Debris refers to the remains of the spider s meals and sometimes small scraps of leaves and bark that are incorporated into webs and retreats. Some spiders join these bits in a line and hang it from the web, whereas others attach it to the surface of the web using conspicuous white silk. Retreats may also be made from, or incorporate, debris. Decorations are silk patterns, or sometimes the silk-wrapped remains of the spider s meals (debris), which are woven onto the surface of the orb web. If examined closely the silk patterns often zigzag. Fan: indicating the shape of a hand fan. Extending out from a central point. Hammock: what we have termed here a hammock web is a sheet web that is suspended like a trampoline or circus safety net. The main supports and stabilising lines are around the edge and below the sheet and the centre is lower than the edges. There is often a tangle below the sheet where the spider waits for prey. Horizontal: see orientation The hub is the central area of an orb web. This is typically an irregularly woven area where the radial support lines meet and are joined together. Some spiders eat away part of this area when they have finished making the sticky spiral. A knockdown web is a tangle of lines above or below a sheet web which disorients or intercepts flying insects so they land or fall onto the sheet. Like barrier webs, knockdown webs probably also serve a protective function by preventing predators such as wasps from easily flying in. Lace webs do not contain sticky silk, instead they capture prey by snagging. Each line is composed of many tiny fibres which are combed to produce an entangling fuzzy thread, rather like a fluffed out strand of wool or cotton. The web is constructed in a characteristic pattern of ladderlike sections with zigzag steps. New regions show this clearly, but as the web ages, this structure decomposes, and sometimes new layers are laid over the old. Eventually the structure of old areas of the web appears as a jumble of different-sized squares, rectangles and circles. A nest can be considered as a glorified retreat. Here we are specifically referring to the densely woven home of a particular kind of spider. These are often solitary, in which case the nest may be small, but sometimes they live communally, and the large nest may contain up to one hundred or more spiders. Orientation: vertical, horizontal or sloping. These are all terms used to describe how an orb web is positioned. Using a bicycle wheel as a model, vertical would refer to the normal orientation with the bicycle held upright ready for use. Horizontal would apply if the bicycle were lying on its side, or sloping if it were angled from being leant against a low wall or post. Platform webs are a kind of sheet web. The sheet is gently to steeply sloping up and out from the spider s retreat, which is in a silk-lined burrow. The sheet is pulled taut into a smooth surface, which the spider runs on. This is the platform. Above the platform is a maze of knockdown lines. Radials are the silk lines that radiate from the centre of an orb web to the outer frame or support lines like the spokes of a wheel. They are the framework on which the catching spiral is laid. A retreat is a hideaway where the owner of the web may be lurking. This is typically a dead, curled leaf; a hole in a dead twig; or pieces of debris joined to form a tube, which is bound with silk. Sometimes the retreat is just a denser area of silk lines woven into a tunnel, which is usually against a twig or leaf. Often there is a protective tangle of lines around the retreat area, which can make it look like a separate web. Sector: if you think of the radial lines that go from the centre of an orb web to the frame as being like the spokes of a wheel, then the area between each spoke is a sector (like a pie slice). Missing 22 Glossary

23 sectors might be filled in with a tangle, but there are rarely any catching spirals through them. The catching spirals either form a U-turn to either side or end abruptly. A sheet is a closely woven mesh of non-sticky silk lines. Sheet webs can be simply guyed out to the adjacent substrate, e.g. vegetation etc., or associated with a tangle of vertical or haphazardly orientated lines. The sheet part can be seen as a distinct flat or curving surface among the supporting lines. Dew, or a fine spray of water droplets, shows a sheet up clearly. A signal line allows the spider to hide away from an orb web in relative safety, whilst allowing it to monitor the web in case prey flies in. The signal line is usually attached in the hub area at one end and can be followed to the spider s retreat at the other. One leg of the spider can often be seen resting on the line. Silk is composed of thin, strong protein fibres. Silks are produced by a number of invertebrates, including caterpillars such as the silkworm and spiders. Whereas the caterpillars and other insects mostly use silk to make a nest or a cocoon, spiders have adapted silk for all kinds of purposes. These include the covering for egg sacs, for making secure retreats and, of course making webs. Spider silk is spun from the spinnerets, on the tip of the spider s abdomen. Several different kinds are made, including combed fluffy silk (cribellate silk) which is used in lace webs, strong non-sticky threads like those that support orb webs and the sticky silk that is coated with viscous droplets and makes up the catching spiral on many orb webs. Sloping: see orientation. Spirals form the catching surface of a typical orb web. Sometimes there is literally one continuous spiral from the outer edge of the web into the hub. In other webs there may be breaks, or the catching thread may reverse direction once or many times. In most orb webs the spirals are made of sticky silk that is coated in glue-like droplets. A few kinds of orb webs have catching silk of a different nature (cribellate silk). This cannot be as highly tensioned as sticky silk, and so these webs often appear untidy and floppy. A tangle is a more-or-less unstructured and haphazard collection of silk lines without other features like an orb or a sheet. As a guide, we have defined a simple tangle web as anything over five lines in roughly a 10 x 10 x 10 cm area. When tangles are a part of a different web type they usually have a special name; for example, a system of haphazard lines placed on either side of on orb or below it is usually called a labyrinth or barrier web and a similar tangle above a sheet web is often called a knockdown web. Vertical: see orientation. 23 Glossary

24 1 st survey Date: Time: Weather conditions: 2 nd survey Date: Time: Weather conditions: 3 rd survey Date: Time: Weather conditions: 4 th survey Date: Time: Weather conditions: Names: Tally Sheet Location: Habitat description: e.g. grasses, bushes, trees, tree canopy, large trees, dead trees Web Type W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 W11 W12 W13 W14 W15 W16 W17 W18 W19 W21 W22 W23 W24 W25 W26 W27 W28 W29 W29a W30 W31 W32 24 Glossary

The Web2Spider Guide was created by Helen Smith, John Gollan, Matthew Bulbert.

The Web2Spider Guide was created by Helen Smith, John Gollan, Matthew Bulbert. All illustrations were prepared by Helen Smith. Illustrations labelled with adapted from Main, 1976 were modified from: Main,